Saving Nicole

Chapter 30: The Pork Tamale

Dallas's POV
--

I stare at her, keeping my face void of expression. I can't lie to her and I don't know what to tell her. Yes? I'm sorry? I should have told you but I was scared? Like that'd blow over nicely.

Spencer looks smug in his chair as I turn my gaze to him. He knows he hit a nerve and he knows he's winning.

"Why didn't you tell me? If you knew this entire time, why would you not tell me? Do your parents know? Why wouldn't they tell me if you wouldn't?" I can sense the rage building up inside of her, and I just look at her. She shakes her head angrily, her eyes are shards of ice.

"He was using you, Nicole. He just wanted to be near you to make himself feel better. Because of the Mate Bond, he had to. And when he found out about you being a Seer, he wanted to take you away from your home that has protected you for so long. He wanted to manipulate you into leaving because he knew he could get you to do anything he wanted. He doesn't care about you. He's only helping you to help himself and his pack." Desperation floods me as Spencer speaks. My chair skids as I launch myself out of it.

"That's not true!" Even as the words come out, I have to admit they sound hollow. "I would never in my right mind do anything like that!" I look at Nicole, who only shakes her head with glistening eyes closed. And then I look back at Spencer, his lips tugged up in a smug smile and leaning back in his chair. He knows he's won.

"That may be true. But you're not in your right mind." Spencer tells me.

"I would never...." My voice cracks and breaks off. There's no way Nicole will believe me. Not against her own father and when everything makes sense in a twisted way. She doesn't understand the whole Mate thing fully yet.

I stand helplessly looking at Nicole and I can feel something inside me deteriorate.

"Nicole... I wouldn't - I didn't - I'd never..." I stumble over my words. "You have to believe me..." She opens her eyes then, her lips forming a line and her eyes are hard as a rock and sharp as a glacier.

"Get out of my house." Her voice is so low and quiet, I almost miss it.

"Nicole - "

"GET OUT." And that's the only thing I can do. With a final glance at Spencer's triumphant face and Nicole's angry figure, I retreat through the hallway to the front door, carrying a ghost of her honey smell in my memory. Pain sears through me. The Mate Rejection Process.

Spencer wanted to break me. He tried and he tried and he couldn't. And then he figured it out. There's only one way to break an Alpha. Rejection from the person they care the most about.

And Spencer broke me.

--

Days later, I lie awake in my bed, feeling the void inside me widen and start to consume me. The pain is bearable, but I can feel it worsen with every intake of breath. I know what's going to happen next.

I haven't slept all week and I haven't gone downstairs since. My mum brought my food occasionally, but I wouldn't eat it until she begged me. She kept asking what was wrong, what was happening, why I was acting this way. But I think she figured it out because she eventually just stopped the questions. My dad hasn't been home. When he does, I'll have to act like everything's fine. He's not as lenient as Mum.

A hollowness inside me makes me cringe as I sit up from my spot on my bed. Looking around, I notice the dust collecting under my desk and glazing the screen of the TV that hasn't been used in awhile. I rarely sit in the comfort of the beanbags because they still have a trace of her scent. I can't handle it.